Firearm Safety

Handling

Before handling any ﬁrearm, familiarize yourself with these safety procedures:

Know how the ﬁrearm operates — including safely opening and closing the action of the ﬁrearm, and removing ammunition from the gun or its magazine. Review the gun’s owner’s manual, or for free safety and operating instructions, write to the manufacturer or visit its website.

Always keep a gun pointed in a safe direction, even when handling an unloaded gun — so that if it were to ﬁre it would not result in injury.

Never assume a ﬁrearm is unloaded. Make sure it is unloaded by opening the action and looking into the chamber(s), which should be clear of ammunition; if the gun has a magazine, carefully remove it before opening the action.

Always keep your ﬁnger off the trigger, even when handling an unloaded gun. Your ﬁnger should rest outside the trigger guard or along the side of the gun. The only time you should touch the trigger is when you are ready to safely ﬁre.

Storage

Unloaded ﬁrearms should be stored in a locked cabinet, safe, gun vault or storage case. The storage location should be inaccessible to children.

Gun locking devices render ﬁrearms inoperable and can be used in addition to locked storage. If ﬁrearms are disassembled, parts should be securely stored in separate locations.

Ammunition should be stored in a locked location separate from ﬁrearms.

Thoroughly double check ﬁrearms to conﬁrm that they are unloaded when you remove them from storage. Accidents could occur if a family member borrows a gun and returns it to storage while still loaded.

Cable style Gun Locks are available for free at the Orange Village Police Department.